Arriving in Barcelona it was nice to feel the sunshine after the rubbish weather Toulouse had offered up. I walked from the bus station to the Arc de Triomf metro station and found it pleasantly easy to make my way to Hostafrancs and onwards to the apartment. Meeting my host and starting the long hike up the 6 flights (more stairs) dumping my backpack and rushing out again to meet my Mum off her bus at Playa Espanya. After ? weeks it was so exciting to see her sitting and waiting for me on the steps and we sat for a while enjoying the sunshine and catching up. Something so normal felt so surreal after our time apart that we could have stayed there all day! Forewarning mum of the hideous climb ahead of us, but promising it would be worth every step, we walked back to the apartment. That evening we went in search of some food before going to watch the light and music show at Montjuic fountain. We found that there wasn't much in the way of eateries by the fountain so ended up just of Playa Espanya eating a fairly substandard paella. The show at the fountain more than made up for this though. It was spectacular! Listening to music from movies, the current charts and 80s pop.
The next we enjoyed a leisurely morning on the terrace before hunger drove us out to get brunch and check out some of the sights. Getting the metro to Sagrada Familia I was highly disappointed to find it half covered in scaffolding and therefore ruining any chance of a decent photograph. Moving on through the streets we took in a few other places including Casta Batllo, Palace Guell and the infamous La Rambla. Stopping for ice cream on the way and asking for a two scoop tub was the highlight of the day. Every time we asked for two scoops the assistant would give us cheesecake flavour ice cream, after several tries, and badly concealed laughter, I ended up with two scoops of Kinder flavour which wasn't what I wanted but by the end was just grateful it wasn't cheesecake. The rest of Mums trip was filled with the shouts of 'Two scoops' and the echo of 'CHEESECAKE'!
That evening we decided to have a quiet night in. Mum went to the local shop that served take away chips and we made fried eggs in the apartment and enjoyed one of my favourite English meals with bread and butter to accompany it.
The following day we got the metro to Park Guell and had lunch and a leisurely stroll around the gardens with its fairy-like castle structure set in the hillside. Unfortunately because we didn't book tickets in advance we weren't able to go into the further parts of the gardens so we headed home to chill out in the sun before going out for our last meal of the trip. Freshly showered and feeling less tired we went out to eat at a tapas restaurant and then paid one euro to get the lift to the top of the Centre Comercial Arenes de Barcelona to see a panorama view of Montjuic.
Sadly it turned out that we were departing from different terminals the next day and would have to part ways several hours earlier than we had originally planned. Waving Mum off onto her bus made me a little sad, but it was time to catch my own bus and head to the airport for a few hours waiting for the plane to Venice!